Comments on: What is a CMS? http://www.cmscritic.com/what-is-a-cms/ CMS News, Reviews, Interviews and Articles Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:05:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jürg Meier http://www.cmscritic.com/what-is-a-cms/#comment-723 Jürg Meier Wed, 12 Jan 2011 18:08:04 +0000 http://www.cmscritic.com/?p=1855#comment-723 I'm always surprised how deep the content/ECM world still remains in the 20st century. Predominant is still very much the notion of the application: Content is the umbrella term for WCM and ECM. WCM is optimized for publishing, while ECM supports intra-enterprise processes, BPM, capturing, RM and all that stuff. To me, the word content is a promise. And I like to turn its definition upside down: we should recognize that "everything is content". It represents the common basis of all information in the enterprise: unstructured data (maybe binary), described by structured metadata, controlled by process engines and authorization concepts. With a standard data and services interface on top (e.g. HTTP), this opens way to *all* information in the enterprise; irrelevant its nature that might has been indoctrinated just because it is stored in a particular ECM system. WCM and ECM flavoured systems are in such an architecture just what they are: apps that make use of enterprise content available in a specific way, they offer added-value functionality for content re-use. Thus, we should understand Content as the most vital concept to cope with 21st century information challenges. It helps us to think in information, looking at it unbiased from different contexts, not in terms of systems it resides in. Silos and RPC connections between them is 20st century ECM thinking that won't take large organizations very far anymore. I'm always surprised how deep the content/ECM world still remains in the 20st century. Predominant is still very much the notion of the application: Content is the umbrella term for WCM and ECM. WCM is optimized for publishing, while ECM supports intra-enterprise processes, BPM, capturing, RM and all that stuff.

To me, the word content is a promise. And I like to turn its definition upside down: we should recognize that "everything is content". It represents the common basis of all information in the enterprise: unstructured data (maybe binary), described by structured metadata, controlled by process engines and authorization concepts. With a standard data and services interface on top (e.g. HTTP), this opens way to *all* information in the enterprise; irrelevant its nature that might has been indoctrinated just because it is stored in a particular ECM system.

WCM and ECM flavoured systems are in such an architecture just what they are: apps that make use of enterprise content available in a specific way, they offer added-value functionality for content re-use.

Thus, we should understand Content as the most vital concept to cope with 21st century information challenges. It helps us to think in information, looking at it unbiased from different contexts, not in terms of systems it resides in.

Silos and RPC connections between them is 20st century ECM thinking that won't take large organizations very far anymore.

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